La réforme de la réglementation en France: Renforcer l’ouverture du marché à travers la réforme de la réglementation

As traditional barriers to trade have fallen, the impact of domestic regulations on international trade and investment has become more apparent than ever before. While regulations aim at improving the functioning of market economies in a range of fields, such as market competition, business conduct, the labour market, consumer protection, public health and safety or the environment, they may directly or indirectly distort international competition and prevent market participants from taking full advantage of competitive markets. Maintaining an open world trading system requires regulation that promotes global competition and economic integration, thereby avoiding trade disputes and improving trust and mutual confidence across borders. This chapter assesses how the French regulatory system performs from these perspectives and how regulatory reform may contribute to enhancing market openness and the benefits which consumers and producers can reap from open markets. From the perspective of opening the market to international competition, the French record is on the whole positive. The French government and administration have gradually distanced themselves from the interventionist and paternalistic tradition of the State and have committed themselves to developing a regulatory framework supportive of sound market functioning. Nevertheless, there are still some shortcomings in terms of achieving a market-friendly regulatory environment, and these need to be addressed for the country to retain benefits from the progress achieved to date. Available evidence shows that the principles of favouring harmonised standards and of streamlining conformity assessment procedures are widely respected in practice, in particular under the influence of EU and WTO disciplines. Observance of competition principles also offers sound guarantees for the international openness of the French market, and the telecommunications sector offers a good example of such successful opening to competition. In sectors where incumbents still dominate ...